Nopesport

High speed and high excitement as the first round of the UK Cup and the third round of the FCC headed south to Bloom Wood. Despite many of the top orienteers missing in most classes, the standard was high with some excellent performances. Bloom Wood is, mainly, a very runable beech woodland, with many dispersed pits and depressions which sometimes proved difficult to find.

In the Men’s UK Cup, first year Graham Gristwood set his season of to a flying start, ripping round the 5.6km course in 27:30, hitting 4:53 m/km’s. (7:23 m/km’s quicker than last weekend). Graham was really pleased with his performance “It was pretty much perfect, maybe 10-20s lost at 14, but apart from that it was fantastic!”. GG’s world class effort saw him take a comfortable minute lead over Rob Baker, finding some good form in second place, Ed Catmur came back on the scene and took 3rd place just another minute behind. Neil Northrop was 4th, just 3 seconds ahead of Mark Nixon, and M35 Paddy Walder took the final podium place. In such fast terrain your position would suffer with just seconds of time lost, 4th to 14th were only separated by 2 minutes.

The Women’s UK Cup was a far closer contest, but it was the training machine, Claire Ward, who took home the 50pts at the end of the day, just 8s ahead of Emma Dahlstedt, Swedish International and now studying at Oxford University. No one else was really able to get near the speed of these 2 internationals with Linn Nilsson from OK Tyr, Sweden, taking the 3rd spot nearly 2 minutes behind. Aisllin Austin was 30s behind Linn in 4th, just 1 second ahead of Abi Weeds, 5th, thanks to a strong finishing section by Aislinn. Toni O’Donovan was 6th.

The FCC courses ran the same courses as the UK Cup, as per usual. In the Men’s 20 class, despite not being able to match the speed on the 21’s, bloody Rhys Findlay-Robinson (if you don’t understand, don’t comment) cruised to victory in 32:24, 2 minutes clear of Colin Olivant. James Bennett, EUOC legend, took 3rd place, 20s behind Colin. Ross Sanderson was a further 18s behind his EUOC team mate with Matthew Dickinson in 5th. Local(ish) lad Tom Bray was 6th.

In the M18 David Schorah had the 2nd fastest junior time of the day, 32:33, winning by an epic 4 minutes. Iain Embrey took 2nd, half a minutes in front of Joe Taunton. Chris Williamson, Matthew Jones and Ben Stevens completed the top 6.

In the Girl’s Joanna Thompson, WCH, took the gold in a hotly contested W18, beating all of the W20s (including several GB Junior Squad Members) and also had the 7th fastest time on UK Cup 32:26, only 3 minutes down on Claire Ward. Just 30s behind was Tessa Hill, who has now truly established herself as one of the top juniors. Rose Hodkinson took 3rd, with Stefanie Blomquist in 4th, although things would probably been different if she had found the last control successfully. Ruth Holms was just 5s behind Stefanie, with Jess Halliday taking the 6th spot.

In the W20 Cerys Manning took the top spot, however when interrogated it was clear that she was disappointed with her run, nearly 2 minutes off the pace of the W18’s. Hazel Tant, SOS, took 3rd, Kirsten Strain 4th, and Lizzie Adams 5th. That was all.

UK Cup Men
1) 27:30 Graham Gristwood
2) 28:36 Rob Baker
3) 29:28 Ed Catmur
4) 29:44 Neil Northrop
5) 29:47 Mark Nixon
6) 30:11 Patrick Walder

UK Cup Women
1) 29:26 Claire Ward
2) 29:34 Emma Dahlstedt
3) 31:20 Linn Nilsson
4) 31:54 Aislinn Austin
5) 31:55 Abi Weeds
6) 32:04 Toni O’Donovan

FCC M20
1) 32:24 Rhys Findlay-Robinson
2) 34:22 Colin Olivant
3) 34:45 James Bennet
4) 35:03 Ross Sanderson
5) 36:31 Matt Dickinson
6) 36:45 Tom Bray

FCC W20
1) 34:11 Cerys Manning
2) 34:45 Helen Gardner
3) 37:38 Hazel Tant
4) 38:11 Kirsten Strain
5) 38:55 Lizzie Adams

FCC M18
1) 32:33 David Schorah
2) 36:52 Iain Embrey
3) 37:18 Joe Taunton
4) 37:35 Chris Williamson
5) 39:34 Matthew Jones
6) 40:22 Ben Stevens

FCC W18
1) 32:36 Joanna Thompson
2) 33:02 Tessa Hill
3) 33:58 Rosemary Hodkinson
4) 34:33 Stefanie Blomquist
5) 34:38 Ruth Holms
6) 36:39 Jessica Halliday

For Full Results visit the BKO Website

Allan Bogle @ the finish